Journeyman finale leaves the light on

Maybe I’m a sap, but I almost got choked up at the end when Katie asks Dan if his promise to always come home still stood.

He said yes.

And she said, “Then, I’ll leave a light on.”

What a great scene. It could have gone the wrong way and I thought for a moment that it was headed there. Katie’s sister Annette was in her ear the entire episode about buying another house for “insurance” reasons, that maybe it was time to get away with Zach.

With all those words ringing true for Katie, she proved once again to be one of the strongest, most loyal wives on network television. She turned against all cliches and stuck by Dan.

That’s the stuff that makes this show so hard to see disappear. Katie’s character has been impressively written and unique in her decisions. Definitely the unsung hero of Journeyman.

But let’s get on to the revelations in this episode.

Olivia and Dan aren’t alone. Dan meets Evan, a traveler like him who’s been locked up in a mental institution, supposedly halted from moving through time by sedative pills.

At first we aren’t sure, then we think he’s crazy, but then the truth comes out. And his story almost mirrored Dan’s earlier when Katie was close to being killed by Aeden Bennett.

But Evan’s wife did die and he tried to fix it over and over and over. He kept making things worse until he happened upon the day they met at Stanford. A little “bump” by him and the meeting never took place, they never got married and his live spiraled into a tale spin.

He kept a massive diary of his travels, scribbling on one page the words, “I don’t care anymore.”

An omen to what will happen to Dan someday? I don’t think so, Dan is special somehow. And what else is in that diary that might prove useful?

Dan and Olivia were there to save Evan they thought, who gets killed trying to reunite with her, confident she will remember. But as they go along, Dan realizes it’s to help him get together with her once more. And she did remember him, something we sort of felt with Katie last week and the Zach/Caroline incident. Time is changed, but something still remains.

Evan had to fix the timeline, the history that he screwed up. Once it was fixed, Evan died instantly.

The first question I have is, why are some things allowed to be fixed, but not others? Why does Evan need to “restore” things he screwed up, while other people get their histories altered for the better?

The next big question is: Why did Evan die? It felt like someone made it happen, but I don’t know about that. Was he just meant to die? If so, then everyone is meant to die, so that can’t be the answer.

In the meantime, Jack was on the trail of Dr. Elliot Langley, harassing him enough that Langley ended up meeting Dan at the end of the episode.

What Dr. Langley had to say was staggering. There are more of them out there, but the numbers are dwindling. He acts like he knows about them, but then says he has his suspicions.

We now know Langley is part of the Thurn-Tippet Group, which received a grant to try and account for temporal anomalies, and we’re not talking about just Dan. Democritus discovered the atomic structure a half-millennium before the atom was conceived, the Incas built perfect clay replicas of airplanes in 500 A.D. and other anomalies.

Through their work, they discovered a select group of people who “change realities.”

The big surprise, according to Langley is that NO ONE is “doing” this to Dan. They know about them, they know what he’s been doing for six months, but they aren’t the ones in control. As far as they can tell, it’s just Dan.

The big catch that I’m sure would come into play down the road if the series continued, is that this secret is dangerous. If others found out there was a way to control a time traveler, it could be devastating.

Finally, the hard crushing reality. The number of time travelers is shrinking, the “system” is breaking down and Dan is the last one.

Only he’s not. Olivia is still there. And Langley didn’t know about her until Dan told him another existed. That in of itself is interesting.
It was like Yoda telling Luke, “There is another…Skywalker.”

Almost.

Before Olivia and Dan left after watching Evan die, Olivia hugs Dan goodbye, telling him she felt like it might be a long time until they saw each other again.

Little does she know, or maybe she does, that those words echoed the same sentiment that we do.

Our two travelers affected by the Joseph Lee Comet, part ways, but not before noticing Dan from two months ago start on his first mission across the street.

And it was right after Evan died. Langley had no answer to this, but it’s related somehow. Once Evan was dead, Dan started his missions.

The question is, if no one is controlling them, do they do this subconsciously? Are they connected to something supernatural in charge of the movements?

We may never know, but I will really, REALLY miss this show. The final scenes with Katie and Dan cemented it as something worthy of being renewed.

When Katie realizes Evan wasn’t crazy, she lights up with the realization that they can just get the pills to keep Dan from going anywhere.

But we know what Dan felt at that moment. This was important and what he was doing was meaningful. And she saw it in his eyes, and instead of letting the disappointment crush her, she once again took a deep breath and stood by her husband’s side.

The very end was brilliant. Katie had never seen Dan vanish before and asked to watch earlier in the episode, but it didn’t work out.

But in the middle of the night, Dan knew he was about to go.

Maybe it was his new sense of purpose or belonging, who knows, but this time he was ready to go and calmly sat in the bedroom chair watching Katie sleep as the warp was about to take him.

At the last second he says, “Katie” and then is gone with a flash in the wink of an eye.

The camera flips to Katie who saw it happen, her eyes widening as we zoom into them and the episode ends.

Bravo Kevin Falls. A finale worthy of the first 12 episodes.

And maybe there is hope yet. Nothing is definite. Journeyman could travel again someday.

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I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’m pretty sure I called it the other day when I said that no one was making it happen to them…

Seriously, though, this was a great episode. Man, I cannot believe the executives would watch this show and shut it down without at least moving it around the schedule or something and trying to figure out a way to get it an audience first. What morons.

I still hate to think this is the end for this show, but if it is, it was a great finale.

On a sidenote, if the show comes back, please let’s leave Katies sister out of it…what a biatch! Oh, and by the way, houses like Dan and Katies run 2 million+, you can’t just pick one up as insurance….puleeeze.

Doesn’t the SciFi Channel like to pick up good SciFi series that were cancelled? This show was really in a bad timeslot and wasn’t dumbed down like alot of network shows – so the ratings didn’t surprise me. Maybe we can petition the SciFi channel to grab it.

I’ll say again whats highly frustrating to me, is all the media hype suggessting, its going to be cancelled…. do you see any other media hype aroundany other shows being cancelled? There are a number of shos that have not been renewed yet or decided on, but seemingly all the attention on ‘its gone’ goes to Journeyman. This to me breaks it in for the masses that its ok it goes away, eases the burden for it to be gone. Why not the reverse hype on it should be a shame it goes away, why not any other attention on other shows?
I still stand by there is nothing official from NothingButCrap (NBC) yet, and it is probably due to the prolonged strike. I think the longer the strike draws on, the show has seen its days, which is just simply sad. Bring it back!!

This was one of the better shows this season…and so was Jericho last year, and Firefly a few years before that. Sci-fi should have picked up all of these, but then again, Sci-fi has been known to pass on the good stuff and put together some really crappy shows. The only show in recent memory that I remember Sci-fi picking up in order to save it was Startgate SG-1 (which was a good show for awhile there).

Keeping my fingers crossed on Journeyman…and I will be doing my part to help ship a few boxes of Rice-a-roni to the clueless NBC execs.

@ Cap’n – I dunno if they ever make official press releases about shows being canceled. It’s enough it seems for the deadlines to be missed.

@ Spider – I was the same, at the start, I’d tape Journeyman and watch them the next morning and it was great fun. I’m going to miss that.

@ Matt – Pretty amazing how SciFi has missed out on good shows, although I heard Fox wouldn’t release Firefly to be picked up by anyone else. It was kind of like “we aren’t using it, but no one else can either”.

Also, on a frakking side note, I’ve been calling her Olivia all season and it’s Livia.

Did I just miss that? Is Livia the nickname or are my ears going back?

Whoa! What an AWESOME “finale”! (I’m not giving up hope either, but we have to call it something).

The crowning moment was definitely Katie standing by Dan perhaps because she 1) recognized the truth to his words and 2) decided that she and Dan had made a commitment to each other, and come whatever, she is in this just as much as he is.

I don’t think that I have seen ANYTHING like this on network television for a LONG time. Matter of fact, I have plain altogether stopped watching network television for the very fact that they have been playing nothing but garbage (reality shows, instant gratification, etc).

But along comes Journeyman. Let me just say that I was sooooo glad that NBC kept the pilot on their website for us to watch… because it drew me into the world of Dan, Katie, Zach/Caroline, and Jack Vasser.

Every week I have been looking forward to the next episode, and every episode I have watched thinking, “I can’t wait for this go out on DVD. I’m buying 100 copies and distributing them.”

Not only is the series _entertaining_, but it’s actually WORTH something! I like the fact that Dan is a recovered gambling addict. He has a strength I think that comes from having overcome something like that. I like the faith that Katie has (even though the situation is absolutely frustrating). And now they have Jack’s trust and dedication…

… DON’T CANCEL THE SHOW!!!!

…

Does anyone know how to get in contact with the SF channel to request they pick it up, or with NBC to ping them to keep it alive?

I’m willing to write letters, make phone calls, get everyone I know involved.

I just got to watch this a bit ago. Man, IF it doesn’t come back that was just a great close to the series because it gave a strong feeling of what will go on with them in the future.

You aren’t the only sap, Mike. It got kind of dusty in my house for a bit there at the end…dang contacts!

This is one show I’m really going to miss, a lot, if USA or Sci Fi or someone doesn’t step up to the plate and take it on. Oh well, there’s always “Hoedown with Hobos” or whatever else is on the horizon.

What a great episode! this show deserves so much more than NBC threw at it. I really hope someone will have the brains to pick this show and give it a much deserved second season (and many more after.) In 12 episodes it started thin but grew and became on of my favs on TV, 2nd only to Dexter I think. (oh, and way better than this seasons’s Heroes I might add..) in any case – THANK YOU TO EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THIS FANTASTIC SHOW.

I thought journeyman was a great show that teased the imangination in a way that no other show has for a long time…I looked forward to it more than heroes or lost..It opened so many possiblities that in a sense gave resolution to the serial nature of the show…cliffhangers are old hat and somewhat anoying it you have a life outside of tv…Journeyman kepy it interesting without bogging down…What a bunch of idiots to cancel it…remember Star Trek…

Actually Democritus didn’t “discover” the atomic structure, he put forth the theory that all things, including the soul, were made up of tiny imperishable, indivisible units, which he called atoma. That certain forms of matter are harder because they possess hooks, which attach themselves to each other, and that liquids are made of large round atoms. Though he was of course very close to what modern science “knows” about such things, it was simply a hypothesis that was latter shown to be correct. He did not discover the structure of an atom, as he knew nothing of electrons, neutrons, and protons, nor of their properties. He guessed that atoms existed and later when it was “proven” that they did, they named them atoms in recognition of Democritus’ theory. Though this is indeed significant in the western world, it is a far cry from knowing something about future sciences before it is discovered, which is what was implied by the Doc’s statements on Journeyman. More over the Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools of India had theorized much the same thing about atoms a century before Democritus’ time. Check out wikipedia for more info.